A Good Day to Die Hard explodes into first place at the UK box office

Despite mixed to downright atrocious reviews, Bruce Willis' latest outing as terrorist killing machine John McClane opened in first place at the UK box office, with A Good Day to Die Hard pulling in a solid £4,551,116 (including one day of preview screenings totalling £1.28m). That figure is almost on par with the previous instalment Die Hard 4.0 (which banked £5.01m from a five-day opening, with £1.59m from previews), and must be a relief for Willis after the disappointing performance of the latest films from fellow action veterans Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Last Stand) and Sylvester Stallone (Bullet to the Head), although in fairness it will have been helped immeasurably by the name recognition of the Die Hard brand, and the 12A certificate.

Despite slipping to second, Disney's Wreck-It Ralph banked another £3.44m in its second weekend to put the CG animated comedy on a firm footing going into the school holidays. Meanwhile Judd Apatow's quasi-Knocked Up sequel This Is 40 opened on Thursday to claim third with £1,229,352, with Beautiful Creatures arriving a day early to pull in £1,109,167 in fifth; however, if it wasn't for preview takings, both films would have found themselves below Les Misérables (fourth with £1.13m) and I Give It a Year (sixth with £1.01m). A Turtle's Tale sequel Sammy's Great Escape debuted with £519,049 to take eighth ahead of Django Unchained, while Lincoln and Flight round out the chart in ninth and tenth.

Number one this time last year: The Woman in Black